This Is What It Looks Like When Janitors Take a Laptop from a Surveillance Industry Convention

Two weeks ago, I suggested that with the ASIS International security industry expo around -- with a few million surveillance cameras lining a showroom full of lasers, booby traps bodyguards -- the Dallas Convention Center was easily the safest place in town. At the time, though, I had no idea that just three days earlier, a pair of convention center janitors put that very theory to the test, as you'll see in the video above.

As one guy helps himself to some candy from a display table, and then a laptop, he and and another janitor are caught on a camera at Danish video security firm Milestone Systems' neighboring booth. (Skip ahead to the 56-second mark to see the guy help himself to some candy, and to 1:29 to see him grab the laptop.)

Trish Logue, marketing director at Moog QuickSet, came in the next morning to find her computer missing, and it wasn't long before the video surfaced. Now Milestone is making the most of the PR opportunity, even including their eerie "video synopsis" system, BriefCam, at the end of the reel, with concurrent footage of all the janitors' movements around the booth. Security Products is calling them "The Dumbest Criminals On Earth," and other industry sites have been running stories along that line.

Milestone says police showed the janitors the video and returned the laptop and an iPad the next day -- along with "several bags full of stolen items" from another convention. It almost looked a little too good to believe, but after checking with detectives, DPD Senior Corporal Kevin Janse confirms: "The video is real." But, he says, none of the victims wanted to make a report to police once they got the goods back.

Reached at her suburban Chicago office, Logue told me she didn't want to go through the hassle of pressing charges, but she's not sure what became of the janitors. I've got a call in to DCC and will update as I hear more.